Syrian Warplanes Bomb Damascus Suburbs

BEIRUT - Syrian warplanes bombed Damascus suburbs and rebel-held areas in the country's north Wednesday as the government blasted the European Union for endorsing a newly formed opposition coalition.

The raids struck several eastern suburbs of the Syrian capital and the strategic northern city of Maaret al-Numan, a key supply route linking Damascus and the commercial hub of Aleppo, said two activist groups. Both the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordination Committees also reported violence elsewhere in Syria.

The state-run news agency SANA said the army continued its pursuit of "terrorists" - a government term for rebel fighters - in the Damascus suburb of Arbeen, inflicting casualties on the enemy. The report also said that attackers targeted a mosque in Daraya suburb.

Syria's conflict erupted in March 2011 with an uprising against President Bashar Assad's regime, inspired by other Arab Spring revolts. The crisis has since morphed into a civil war, with scores of rebel groups across the country fighting government troops. Nearly 40,000 people have been killed in the 20 months of unrest, according to activists.

In violence late Tuesday, a mortar round landed near a park in the upscale Abu Rummaneh neighborhood in Damascus, wounding at least three people, the pro-government Al-Ikhbariya TV said.

Assad's regime blames the revolt on a foreign conspiracy and accuses Saudi Arabia and Qatar, along with the United States, other Western countries and Turkey, of funding, training and arming the rebels.

Damascus on Wednesday blasted the European Union for recognizing the newly formed Syrian opposition coalition as a legitimate voice of the Syrian people.

State-run daily Al-Thawra newspaper, a government mouthpiece, derided the coalition formed earlier this month as a "deformed" newborn baby in a front-page editorial, saying all possible "cosmetic surgeries do not bode well for the evolution of this monster."

The National Coalition of the Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces was formed Nov. 11 in Qatar under pressure from the United States for a stronger, more united opposition body to serve as a counterweight to the more extremist forces fighting Assad's regime.

The endorsement was a major step forward in the West's acceptance of the group, even as fast-moving events and fluid alliances have cast doubts on the direction of the rebellion. The international support comes at a difficult time for the new coalition as Syria's disparate opposition groups have been long plagued by divisions and in-fighting.

A group of extremist Islamist factions in Syria on Sunday rejected the new coalition, saying in a video statement they have formed an "Islamic state" in the embattled city of Aleppo to underline that they want nothing to do with the Western-backed bloc.

For the government, the Islamists are evidence of the militant and sectarian nature of the conflict. The rebels are mostly Sunni Muslim fighting against Assad's regime which is dominated by members of his minority Alawite sect, an off-shoot of Shiite Islam.

Al-Thawra, the regime paper, said that meeting in Qatar failed to unite the opposition groups to "the extent that some (opposition) groups have announced the establishment of an Islamic State" in Syria.